CEO’s of Novartis, WhatsApp meet Telangana Minister

Hyderabad: Two eminent corporate honchos- CEO of Whatsapp and Novartis, separately met the Telangana Minister for IT and Industries KT Rama Rao here.

According to an official release, Novartis Chief Executive Officer of Vas Narasimhan met Rao and discussed life sciences ecosystem in the state and the vision of the state government for the sector.

The minister explained the initiatives taken by the state government to Narasimhan and emphasised on leveraging the vibrant scientific and industrial ecosystem in the city for the improvement of pharma and biosciences sector, it said.

He highlighted that about 700 new investment proposals, including 100 R&D units, have been approved during the last four years.

The Minister also stated that during the last four years, the Life Sciences product exports in the state grew at 2.41 times, as compared to the national average of 1.18 times.

The Minister handed over a docket to Narasimhan explaining the marquee initiatives taken by the Telangana government, it added.

Whatsapp CEO Chris Daniels and Shivnath Thukral, head of public policy division, Facebook, India, also called on the minister today, a separate release said.

During the meeting, the minister pitched the case of Hyderabad for setting up customer service operation center of WhatsApp for which Daniels responded positively, the release added.